SaV Monitor You Guys and Herp Center

Hi ill be posting some pics of my savs setup and of my sav i just want some feedback things i can improve on or keep the same to continue giving her the most. I love this forum ive looked at all the caresheets in the world it seems but the constant information and feedback from this forum and other monitor owners is amazing and keeps you updated with better techniques and ideas for feeding and enclosures im new so bare with me lol just wanted to give a big thanks to all you guys for the monitor info and Herp center for providing such an excellent source of info thanks all ya'll lol...

"In a world where you can be anything, be yourself"

Sweet! Looking forward to the pics

Thanks and deffinately looking forward to the feed back would a vid be better and are they easy to upload lol sorry just super new and loving this forum lol

Welcome to the forums. How are you keeping your monitor? Have you checked out The Savannah Monitor, Varanus exanthematicus ?

Here is a link on how to post and upload vids to Herpcenter. All videos have to be approved. This helps us to keep "junk" out. Believe it or not, we do get spammers from time to time.

Can't wait to see it. I am getting ready to rearrange my house so I can make a nice enclosure for a Sav here soon.

Lizard Videos

Yes i have and thanks ive actually read up on some discussions you personally were having about their diet and the whole rodents to invert topic and found it to be very informative but i do have to say i agree and disagree well not so much as to disagree but find it very hard to believe its possible to raise a sav on inverts only im not saying its impossible but i mean you would need an extremely big colony of feeder inverts to keep a healthy sav now i dont mean that you should primaraly feed rodents obviously reading bennets the truth behind SaVs and looking at the way savs are structerly built jaw wise they are more adapt at eating inverts and snails as they teeth are more blunt and jaw power is used more for crushing then tearing as appose to a croc monitor but is it safe to say that ginen the chance a sav could do well on rodents not strictly rodents of course

To Jen thanks so much ill deff use this link good luck with your enclosure and new sav theyre amazing beautiful intellegent creatures

It won't be easy feeding a sav a 'naturalistic' diet in captivity. I'm going to try my best.

I'm getting 3 species of cockroach colony under way (dubia, Hisser, turkestan), and the guy at the local herp show usually has a few dozen other species I might look into.

There is an edible introduced species of snail here (Cepaea nemoralis) I can collect and culture in the spring. I have collected them to make escargot before. The nice thing about these snails, is that they pretty much stay in one area of the yard, in very large numbers. I guess they like lilies, because every time it rains, they come out by the hundreds. So I'm going to plant dozens of lilies and start farming snails in my backyard, maybe bring some indoors to start a year-round colony, but I have some research to do before I can do that. I do not know how to culture snails, lol.

I was trying to breed millipedes, without success. I might try again, once the prices are more reasonable. I'm hoping to get African species, something a Sav would naturally encounter in the wild where they are native.

I can also order crayfish by the hundreds, live.

And of course earthworms, superworms, hornworms, mealworms, etc. are all available here as well. I'm going to get a superworm colony up and running again soon, too.

It's kind of a shame Giant African Land snails are banned. I totally understand their reasons, but they would be an excellent food source!

Thats awsome and sounds like the best way to go i feed my female sav large superworms about 4 to 6 dozen at one setting and snails but she only gets about 3 a month as a treat also feed dubia roaches which she loves crickects here n there to give variety and the ocassional mouse about 1 every two weeks but my feeding is about 80% inverts about 20% treats snails mice hornworms occasional egg no yoke and you will see as soon as i post the pics shes not at all obesse and she is very agile and active Ive learned to make her work for her food whether from MDF haha shout outs vids and bu simply letting her be herself let them forage for their food i never use a dish she has to eat as many as she can before they crawl into her dirt and get away and yes that forked tongue works wonders ive yet to see anything survive for more than 3 days she finds evey last invert in her enclosure and this allows excercise and allows them to utilize their logic skills my savs so smart that shes starting to figure out that if she bites and crushes her prey first she can work on getting other inverts so she actually kills and collects them before eating